Recently, a client that had hired me as a sales coach told me that I was not everybody's cup of tea, but that he was trying to acquire the taste.

Today, I had a current client tell me that he now realizes that I had to spend some time tearing him down before I could build him up, but I had to keep him together so that his family, co-workers and customers don't see his struggle.

Tomorrow I have a call scheduled with a pretty sharp salesman. He signed up for a free coaching call a couple of weeks ago and I followed up with an email. It started with "I hope that you got something usable out of today's call." A paragraph later, I added, "Now, you may wonder why I didn't offer to coach you and whether it was a trick. It's not a trick. You're not done failing yet. You haven't struggled enough." So, he's a sharp guy. Clearly, I'm not trying to sell him. Why does he want to talk to me tomorrow? In his words today, "Discuss your sales coaching services in detail - process, costs, expectations, etc." In reality, he wants to know if I can help him reach his full potential. What's his full potential? He doesn't have a clue because he can't imagine it yet.

A few months before I retired, I was asking an associate some tough questions at a company meeting. After a few minutes, he asked, "Rick, why do you have to be such an a-hole?"

Change is more important than what you think of me.

One last story...

I was on a call with a client, coaching him on how to handle a particular situation. I asked him how he would normally handle it and he told me and when we role played it with him being the salesperson and me being the prospect, he wound up where he always does and couldn't close a sale. Then we switched and I showed him what I would do. He didn't like it. I showed him another way. He didn't like that. So, I did it again and he didn't like my third suggestion. Why? He wanted me to show him how to make his approach work. He didn't want to change anything. He wanted to do the same thing, but get a different result. Why? because he was comfortable with it. Significant change is seldom comfortable. Seldom easy and seldom self induced.

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When one can accept the fact that what they are doing is not working and they are committted to change then the battle with a coach becomes non-existant. If one accepts a coach then accept the reality that he coach in most cases will see things that you as the client are too emotionally involved with. People who takes on a coach should know why, they need help and have to accept the fact that they are not going to get "yesed to death", they are going to get help and may not like all that they hear all the time. Accept the change, you'll see the results.

Frank Belzer

If someone gets hung up the personality or the style of their coach they will never get better. There is always some reason/excuse why not to listen. What about your surgeon or fireman that is trying to save your life - would you not listen to their direction if they were rude or blunt? People need to see the importance of getting help before they can get help.

I'm a former client of Rick's. For a year, I spoke with him nearly every day, for 15 minutes or more a day. To any potential clients reading this, I would say, it is true: Rick is direct. I've known him to make grown women cry. (Not me!!) But as someone who more than doubled my sales after working with Rick, I can tell you that if Rick thinks that you're "coachable" he's completely devoted to your success - even if that means informing you about some troubling personality quirks you may need to work on. Remember what it was like being a kid? You knew your parents loved you, yet they might tell you sometimes that you were acting like a spoiled brat, you were being selfish, you needed to help grandma more, etc, etc. Did you like it? Of course not! You HATED it when your parents said those things to you. As an adult, do you understand why they said those things? OK...now you have an idea of what it's like to work with Rick. Not for the faint of heart.

Commenting on my last comment - wish I could edit it, but here goes. I did not mean to imply that Rick will necessarily TELL you these things. He has an annoying (or brilliant, depending on your perspective) way of ASKING you questions that cause YOU to realize what is holding you back from achieving your full potential.

I'll never forget the evening I complained to my husband, "Rick says I....too much. Can you believe that?" (And Rick only TOLD me because he kept asking me questions and I still didn't see my blindspot).

My husband tried darned hard not to break into a laugh. Love is blind. But potential clients aren't. If you really want to work HARD to improve yourself, Rick is the guy for you.

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This blog is for, by and aboutSales Rock Stars,RainMakers,Entrepreneurs(and/or those that strive to be)